Sentient Earth brings together works by twenty-eight international artists contending with the ways extractive technologies shape lived environments and shifting perceptions of the planet. Responding to historical trajectories of mining, these narratives extend into the political and ecological imperatives of today’s financial and algorithmic systems. Across Amant’s campus, over sixty artworks span geographies and a multiplicity of media, including kinetic sculpture, anamorphic painting, documentary film, and live data mapping. These artists explore the planetary scale of transformations enacted by today’s accelerating demand for resource extraction.
The exhibition draws attention to Earth’s physical properties and the data and knowledge buried under its surface. The ground beneath our feet is endowed with a projected sentience: minerals are inscribed with spiritual, technological, and economic agency. Layers of sediment, living organisms, and industrial debris have become indispensable resources for the intelligent infrastructures that power contemporary life. Representations of mining embody this threshold between past and future: both a forecast of new technologies—as land, sea, and outer space are continually surveyed for their potential reserves—and a reminder of the perpetual cycles of life on Earth.
From panoramic charcoal drawings of centuries-old forests to machine paintings that employ generative AI, the works in Sentient Earth index the relationship between technological progress and geological depletion that reverberates into the future. Hand-formed bronze railroad tracks and minecars used to transport rock and ore highlight the circulation of raw materials through global energy flows. Visions of industry and technology trace the expanding scales of manufacturing, mobility, and consumption. By addressing rare earth economies, ecological uncertainty, affective investments, and logistical networks, these conversations across fields illuminate the myriad lenses through which Earth becomes legible as a resource.
Sentient Earth is accompanied by a gallery guide featuring a visual essay on Tierra Memoria, a project by Vinicius Duarte, alongside a public program of symposia, screenings, and sound performances. The exhibition will tour to The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto where it will be on view from April 23 to September 6, 2027.
Amant is a non-profit arts organization in Brooklyn, New York, that fosters experimentation and dialogue through exhibitions, public programs, and artist residencies. Gallery Hours
Amant — Brooklyn